AB 3285: Alcoholic beverage control.

Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, which is administered by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, regulates the application for, and issuance and suspension of, alcoholic beverage licenses. Existing law creates various types of on-sale general licenses. Existing law authorizes the department to issue 4 additional new original on-sale general licenses for bona fide public eating places for premises that have a seating capacity for 100 or more diners in a county where the inhabitants number less than 7,000 and the major economy of the county is dependent on continual use of that countys recreational facilities. Existing law prohibits a license of this type from being transferred from one county to another.

This bill would additionally require that the economy of a county in which the licenses described above may be issued also be dependent on tourism. The bill would prohibit the transfer of these licenses to any premises that do not qualify under the provisions pursuant to which these licenses are issued.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act prohibits a licensee from giving a premium, gift, or free goods in connection with the sale and distribution of any alcoholic beverage, except as provided. Existing law, as an exception to that prohibition, until January 1, 2025, authorizes a winegrower, a beer manufacturer, a distilled spirits manufacturer, a craft distiller, a brandy manufacturer, a rectifier, or a wine rectifier to donate a portion of the purchase price of an alcoholic beverage to a nonprofit charitable organization in connection with the sale or distribution of an alcohol beverage, subject to certain limitations, including a prohibition on a promotion or advertisement of the donation that directly encourages or references the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

This bill would extend the operation of that exception until January 1, 2030.